When it comes time to plan for his next season of plays, Jeff Revels noted, it's exciting -- and challenging -- at the same time. “Selecting the shows is the most stressful and wonderful, lovely, exciting part of my entire job,” said Revels. “It's stressful because there is pressure to perform, there's pressure to tell stories that people want to come and see. "But it's exhilarating in that here I sit alone, by myself, reading words on a piece of paper, and a year and a half later thousands of people are seeing what I picked," he added.

When it comes time to plan for his next season of plays, Jeff Revels noted, it's exciting -- and challenging -- at the same time. “Selecting the shows is the most stressful and wonderful, lovely, exciting part of my entire job,” said Revels. “It's stressful because there is pressure to perform, there's pressure to tell stories that people want to come and see. "But it's exhilarating in that here I sit alone, by myself, reading words on a piece of paper, and a year and a half later thousands of people are seeing what I picked," he added.

EUSTIS - David Clevinger is leaving as artistic director of the Bay Street Players on Sunday, just as the last of his 40 plays and musicals at the State Theatre opens. Clevinger said Friday that the board of directors wanted to move the theater in a different direction, so he decided to step down. "It was time for a change," he said. "I've been very grateful for the support from the Lake County residents. She's a great old theater. " The theater group named Joel Warren, director of Bay Street's Second Stage, as the new creative consultant.

The Bay Street Players will host a memorial service for Terrence Shank at 8 p.m. Monday, April 21. The theater is at 109 N. Bay St., Eustis. Shank, who died April 5 at his home in South Africa, was a longtime actor and director in Central Florida. He served as artistic director of the IceHouse Theatre in Mount Dora for more than a decade. The commemoration of Shank's life is being organized by Joel Warren, the Bay Street Players artistic director. When Warren was a teenager, Shank took him under his wing and the two maintained a close friendship the rest of Shank's life.

ORLANDO -- Bruce Marks, appointed interim artistic director of Orlando Ballet in January, has signed a three-year contract beginning in July that removes "interim" from his title. A dancer of international renown in the 1960s and '70s, Marks subsequently directed Ballet West of Salt Lake City and then brought the Boston Ballet to international stature during 13 years as artistic director. The death of Orlando Ballet artistic director Fernando Bujones last fall brought Marks out of semiretirement to help guide the company through the current season.

MOUNT DORA -- Darlin Barry has been named the interim artistic director of the Mount Dora Theatre Company. Tina Heydorn, the theater's executive director, and its board of directors chose professional actor and director Barry to produce and direct shows and fundraisers through August. The decision came two weeks after the resignation of artistic director Joel Warren and his wife, Amanda, who led the Young Actors Theatre. Barry, a member of Actors Equity Association, is a resident of Mount Dora and has performed at the IceHouse Theatre for 15 years.

In an abrupt upheaval at the Orlando Ballet, artistic director Bruce Marks quit Saturday night and was replaced Monday morning by Robert Hill, a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre. Marks, 71, who said he left for personal reasons, had held the post since 2006, shortly after the death of former artistic director Fernando Bujones in late 2005. The switch comes at a critical time for the 34-year-old company, Orlando's only full-time professional ballet troupe, which lost executive director Russell Allen in August and development director Debra Lowe last week.

Pamela Joyce, a longtime actress and costume designer for Ensemble Theatre of Florida, has been named artistic director of the 5-year-old professional theater, based in Melbourne.Joyce, named by the Ensemble's board last week, replaces Stuart Smith, the theater's founder, who left the group to return to Minneapolis.Rodney Fairbanks, an actor and director for the Ensemble, has become associate artistic director of the group.The theater, which presented An Ensemble Christmas Card and Noel Harrison in Adieu, Jacques . . . in December, has canceled its planned production of Greater Tuna because of scheduling conflicts.

An actor, director and acting coach who has worked for Disney and Nickelodeon is in final negotiations to be hired as producing artistic director at Civic Theatre of Central Florida.Civic hopes to have Chris Jorie, who has worked in theater in Los Angeles and San Francisco, on board Sept. 1, executive director John Loesser said.Jorie would fill a new position created by the departure of artistic director Alan Bruun, who is leaving at the end of August.The Civic also is appointing new resident directors Ellen Jones and Jim Sturgell, as well as education director Tim Hanes.

The artistic director who has helped shape the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for nearly two decades says she plans to retire. Judith Jamison said she will step down in 2011. She joined the New York-based modern-dance company in 1965 and became artistic director in 1989, shortly after founder Alvin Ailey's death. Jamison is 64. During her tenure, the ensemble has created a bachelor's degree program with Fordham University, expanded its schedule and built a headquarters in Manhattan.

A barricade of tables, chairs, other furniture and odds and ends piles up onstage at the Athens Theatre in DeLand. Delicate lighting sets the mood. A half-dozen musicians tug at the heartstrings as they mournfully play. Before long, more than 40 actors will take the stage in the finale of beloved musical "Les Miserables. " Yes, "Les Miz. " The Athens is the first community theater in Central Florida to tackle the sprawling musical based on Victor Hugo's 19 t h -century novel.

Creative Sanford has revived - and revamped - the most recent installment of its "Celery Soup" plays, "Made Not Bought. " The "Celery Soup" series is community-storytelling theater. Real-life stories from Seminole County residents are adapted for the plays, which also incorporate original music. Nicholas Murphy, artistic director of Orlando's Cornerstone Theatre, has stepped in as director of this installment, which has been renamed "Remade Not Bought. " Performances are at the Princess Theatre, 115 W. First St., Sanford.

The Lowndes Shakespeare Center is home to not one but two Central Florida premieres this week: Cornerstone Theatre Company opens "Time Stands Still," a work by Donald Margulies. And Orlando Shakespeare Theater presents the world premiere of "The Cortez Method" by Rob Keefe. Leaders agree that the hardest thing about staging new plays has nothing to do with artistry. The biggest challenge, they say, is attracting an audience to the unfamiliar. "I think people already feel like they're taking a risk when they come to the theater," says Mark Routhier, the Shakespeare Theater's director of new-play development.

Emotions Dance Company holds Auditions for Professional Dancers Orlando, Fla. - Emotions Dance Company is looking to expand our talent and is holding auditions for professional level dancers (Age 18 and over). Dancers should have experience in ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary styles. The audition will take place one night only on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 from 9-10:30pm at Turning Pointe- A Dance Studio (Located at 470 E. Lake Brantley Drive, Longwood, FL 32779). Dancers should come prepared for ballet barre, across the floor with jumps and turns, improvisational movement, and a contemporary combination at the end of class.

Unfortunately, because of an injury, Israel Rodriguez will not be able to perform in ME Dance's "Déjà vu" program, as previously announced. Rodriguez had been scheduled to premiere a new work, but he injured his back while dancing at another engagement, said Marshall Ellis, artistic director of ME Dance. "Déjà vu" will take place this Saturday, July 13. Read more about the program here: ME Dance presents Déjà vu .

The very thought of violence can send a shiver of dread down our spines. But for Bill Warriner, violence is an art. The Orlando-based actor and fight director is part of the team behind "Violin(ce)," the latest experimental, movement-based theater piece from the Empty Spaces Theatre Co(llaboration). "There can be beauty in brutality," Warriner says. "When you bring out swords and think of swashbucklers, it's watching something beautiful - but deadly. " In "Violin(ce)," a dozen performers explore different facets of violence through a series of vignettes.

The latest milestone in a 20-year grassroots music-education movement takes place this Sunday, April 28, when the Metropolitan Area Youth Symphony takes the stage at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre. The symphony is a tribute to the late Jonathan May, a conductor and educator who taught music to thousands of children in Central Florida. He died in February 2010, and MAYS was founded that spring by his widow, Maureen May, and Michael Miller, a musician and close friend. May became artistic director of the Florida Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1994.